The media doesn’t do science many favours in its endless search for the eye-grabbing headline. One of the NewScientist bloggers has a good summary of the problem, using as an example the AFP headline used to announce the results of a genetic study of the Maori people of New Zealand, and the identification of a gene that influences aggression and risk-taking in Maori males. The headline? “‘Warrior’ gene claimed to fuel violence in New Zealand Maori.” Overstatement may encourage discrimination and stereotyping, but hey, it sure shifts newpapers.
Category Archives: Blog
Ice-caps On The Rocks
A new scientific study of ocean-floor sediment from the Arctic regions is shedding new light on a period of Earth’s history when there was a massive peak of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – no prizes for guessing that the evidence indicates that the North Pole was unusually warm and wet during this time. The results of this study should promote greater understanding of the Earth’s climate as a system – and not a moment too soon, as another study shows the Greenland ice-cap may be melting at three times the speed previously estimated. Time to sell off that beach-front property and invest in renewable energy, perhaps?
Watering Down The Brands
In a report that will doubtless excite litigation specialists world-wide, it is announced that big-name brands have their reputations ‘damaged’ by other products having the same brand name, even if the product is of a totally different type. In the mean-time, more brand-related news from the subcontinent – the state government of Kerala, India, has banned Pepsi and the Coca-Cola Company from manufacturing or selling their products in the area. It looks like some brands manage to damage their own reputations quite successfully, too.
Battle-Mirrors Tested
The USAF has been playing with a new toy – a twin-mirror relay system that could be used for redirecting laser beams onto distant targets on the ground and in the air. The main advantage of this system is that it removes the need for the firing station to have line-of-sight on the target, and it is part of an ongoing plan to build a system of similar relays in space for missile defense and more. It’s a step on the ladder, but even the airforce themselves admit there’s a lot of work to be done yet.
Exoskeleton’s Peak Performance
A Japanese man who has been paralysed from the neck down for two decades has fulfilled his dream of ascending the Breithorn mountain in Switzerland – by being carried on the back of his buddy, who was kitted out with a HAL ‘robot-suit’ exoskeleton that increases the strength of its wearer by up to 80%. The HAL’s inventor plans to develop the system further, with the goal of enabling more disabled persons to fulfill ambitions otherwise inaccessible to them. Now this proof-of-concept is loose outside the military domain, we can expect to see a lot more devices like it in the coming years.